Sinn Féin - On Your Side

Dublin MEP Mary Lou McDonald today met with Dublin City Council officials
and following a productive discussion secured a meeting between the Council,
the Department of Education and Gaelscoil Bharra in Cabra to take place in
January to discuss tackling the horrendous conditions of the school which is
without proper sanitation, heating and is housed in run down over crowded
prefabs.

“My
meeting today with Dublin City Council was productive. We have agreed that
the Council, Department of Education and Gaelscoil Bharra will meet in
January to discuss tackling once and for all the Dickensian conditions of
the school.

“The
decision by parents of the school to demonstrate outside Education Minister
Batt O’Keeffes house was I have no doubt an effort to bring home to Mr.
O’Keeffe just how bad the conditions of the school are. Parents and teachers
have been campaigning for years now to get a proper school building with the
necessary sanitation, heating and class sizes for this communities children.

“I
am confident that Dublin City Council is fully committed to playing it’s
part in resolving the “deplorable conditions” in which children are educated
in. I believe the failures to date have been primarily the responsibility of
the Department of Education.The facts are
that there been a systematic failure of this and successive governments to
provide adequate school building funding and resources to this school.

“As
a parent of a child attending this school and as a local representative I am
appalled at the Dickensian conditions that exist. That children have to
bang hurls on the ground to scare off rodents and put up with third world
sanitary facilities is a stark indictment of the government’s attitude to
education.

“But
this attitude will have to change. Families have a right to expect a decent
education for their children. It is the government’s responsibility to
deliver such an education.” ENDS